Eventually Mr. Grant’s whistleblowing and testimony at a parliamentary committee led to major reforms in the management of Crown corporations. The former chairman of Canada Lands Co. disagreed with comments made by Alphonso Gagliano, on Jan. 8, 2002.When the astute corporate director, environmental champion and philanthropist Jon Grant, who had led the prosperous Quaker Oats company in Peterborough, Ont.
, for two decades, accepted the chairmanship of the Canada Lands Company, he never anticipated he would be splashed across the front page of The Globe and Mail a few years later as a whistle-blower exposing political corruption in the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien so serious that a cabinet minister was fired. Canada Lands Co. was a newly created Crown corporation set up in 1995 to dispose of surplus federal lands. During his career in the private sector (he was still on the boards, often as chair, of several prominent companies including a Tier 1 chartered bank), Mr. Grant was always a supporter of civic engagement – hence he thought accepting the invitation to chair the Canada Lands board was an opportunity for more public service. But when Alfonso Gagliano, the senior political minister for Quebec, was appointed head of the Public Works department (where Canada Lands Co. was based), Mr. Gagliano and his political assistants began to interfere with contracts and staffing to enrich their friends. His chief of staff once told Mr. Grant “we look after our friends … the rest of Canada is yours but Quebec is ours.” As board chair, Mr. Grant pushed back against questionable deals when he could but he was very concerned about the overall political interference. The government was already reeling from the sponsorship scandal, involving advertising and public relations firms, and there were stories about Mr. Gagliano attempting to force Canada Lands to hire his friends. When M
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